Here's a handy trick for monitoring log files on unix, linux or mac's.

SSH on to your server then type:

tail -f /var/log/httpd/access_log

The above command will show you the last few lines of the log file, this is no suprise if your fimiliar with tail command.

There are a lot of free http log file analysis tools out there that haven't been updated since the mid 90's, awstats however is both free, and up to date. It looks a bit like web trends (though I haven't used web trends in several years). Here's an online demo.